Making Films & Videos/Directors whose films never get released

QuestionHello, I was in a band that happened to get involved with a production company (if you would like the name of it I'd be happy to oblige) and was involved in about 3 of his movies, to be frank from the beginning they all seemed exceptionally horrible at the time of filming and I actually went out of my way to avoid seeing them once they were finished. Now however i have noticed that none of their movies (including ones i was not involved in) are available in any way whatsoever, they are listed in imdb and i know that the movies exist, but i cant help but think that there may be something immoral going on, especially since the director/writer/producer is quite frankly untrustworthy as we later found out that he has had a history of child molestation. i was basically just wondering if you might know of any schemes (or to be fair, legitimate reasons) in the industry that would explain this, he seems to get decent funding and can afford to have a fairly large fairly professional team, and can afford some slightly known actors, but i have no clue how he pays for it if no one can see his movies, and there is no way to purchase a copy. i could understand this if it was one mans passion project or hobby, but this is much bigger than that. if you could possibly clear this up it would be most appreciated. this isnt about getting paid by the way, i know that ship has sailed, and like an idiot i never signed any contracts. thanks anyways for your time, id be happy to give you more specific information if needed. thanks again

AnswerIn rereading your question I would suggest that any director can only make so many films before funding dries out. Sometimes they may actually get a 10 picture deal and even get deposits for each film. Then by the time the first few films are viewed, enough money has been been given to the production team that they can keep going and they may even be able to get the rest of the funding since it might be pointless to hold off finishing funds in the hope that maybe one or two of the films is actually sellable.

However, once those films are done, to get a new deal should require the actual showing of the prior films and where by whom those films are being distributed, I have total empathy for your situation. I made it a rule a long time ago that anything I worked on I would take seriously, and as a result even though I never worked on a truly big budget production with a key role, I managed to win dozens of contest awards and a regional emmy, and, to this day, there are about 3 or 4 projects that were never finished because I was not involved until the very end, and it somewhat annoys me. If a project is not finished, it barely exists other than for the experience of working on the project. I would suggest facebooking anyone who worked on any of the films to find out what has happened since.
I had the experience of remastering 3 super low budget projects that were shot on HI-8 and edited to Super-VHS, to betacam sp, and thus making them sellable. But because the movie was basically done, including the credits, I was never credited, and I found that somewhat unfair.